A Northern Soul – Drinking The Faith

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Steel City / Pub City – Sheffield 30/07/2016

Earlier this year, there was a supposedly serious piece of research by The University of Sheffield. About beer and pubs. It conclusion? That Sheffield was “The World’s Best Beer City“

Notwithstanding the inherent bias likely in such a “study”, to call Sheffield even “the birthplace of the UK craft beer revolution” is patently bollocks – the claim being based on Thornbridge and the subsequent establishment of Brew Dog. Thornbridge being in Derbyshire kind of impales that theory.

I will argue the case for the North as hard as anyone, but Sheffield isn’t even – on any rationals analysis – even the North of England’s greatest beer city. That honour being bounded by the M60. Manchester surely being paramount.

But where Sheffield utterly kicks Manchester’s arse, is with its great drinking pubs. Beautiful venues – proper pubs – that serve tremendous beer. Call it modern, flavour forward, even use the C word if you like, but Sheffield’s pubs draw me like no other.

Manchester has an abundance of great places to drink great beer, but at the end of 2015, I started to feel a bit “been there, done that” to death. I needed something different to write about. And seeing as I wrote about Northern beer, a tour of the pubs of Northern cities and towns was the plan.

Part 1 was Liverpool – and a tour of some of its beery high spots. Courtesy of Julie “Ladies That Beer” O’Grady and her talented hubby Les, he of Neptune Brewery. Recap here.

Part 2 was Hebden Bridge, a beautiful town in recovery from devastating floods. Recap here.

But for Part 3…..our intrepid group – much depleted due to holidays and injury – find ourselves in Sheffield.

And if you get to Sheffield by train, then it would be remiss to bypass The Sheffield Tap, wouldn’t it?

A huge jewel of a place. The Star of Africa in Sheffield’s beery sceptre. It is, quite simply, a stunning place to drink beer. Quarry loads of ceramic tiling, forests of dark veneered wood, herds of leather. It is beautiful. An abundance of rooms, each with its own feel & ambience, an in-house brewery to gawk at and some lovely beer to boot.

Safe to say, it has that WOW factor, similar (but obviously different) to the effect that The Marble Arch can have on the first time visitor. It really is that special.

Of course, it all falls to rat shit if the beer’s no good. But it was lovely. The Rodeo from the in-house Tapped Brew Co was just the refreshing pale ale that was needed. Light & hoppy, without being overpowering.

Steve – our host and guide – had an itinerary and a route all mapped out, with plenty of walking involved. So off we were. A bit of a walk, but I couldn’t begrudge that, as we were heading to the one pub that I insisted be included….

I insisted on The Rutland. If you ever went in, you’d understand. It is, quite simply, a proper pub. And it should be cherished. And I love it all the more, because it is – effectively – the brewery tap for Blue Bee Brewery. And I love Blue Bee beers.

With the feel of a Multiroom pub spread around the well stocked corner bar, this place just has so much soul. It looks untampered with. Just has a feeling that has caught me. I love this place.

It also has what many pubs in Sheffield seem to have. A stunning beer garden. And, just for today, the sun broke out his sombrero.

From a beer perspective, there was plenty of choice, on both cask and keg. But I have to have Blue Bee. And the Reet Pale was a hoppy joy.

The Rutland is one of those pubs with so much character (and such great beers) that you could while away a few hours just chatting and drinking – well, I could – but it was time to meet t’others (Yarkshire folk….)

My first new pub of the day and quite a contrast to The Rutland. Walking in, the second thing that I saw was the lovely curved bar, The first was a North Riding Brewery pump clip.

A single hop pale by Scarborough’s finest sliding down my neck, I could start to accustom myself to the charms of this pub.

Firstly, the beer range was excellent. Something for everyone.Arbor, Bad Seed, Neepsend (a bit of local) and North Riding with some interesting keg options from the likes of Siren, that side was covered.

My first Thornbridge pub. And a thing of beauty. The frontage is deceptive, but the stained glass front windows should have given me a warning of the delights within.

The pub has an almost odd shape to it which adds to its charm, it tapers off to a narrow edge making it a wedge shape, but inside it crams 3 rooms, loads of wood, so much stained glass, buckets of “original features” and a small yet perfectly formed bar into its diminutive footprint.

Don’t ask me about beer notes, there was plenty of cask and keg to choose from. I had a big Thornbridge pale (not Jaipur) and it was simply gorgeous – maybe this is where Untappd would come into its own. But I don’t use it.

A pub with soul to spare, various events too, Poetry evenings, Jazz nights….a bit of everything. This took a walk to get to and it felt like it was on the outskirts of town (when it really isn’t) But, I’m so glad we did. Just a thing of beauty. If you come to Sheff, this is simply a must try.

Having been in the company of Jim & Laura from Abbeydale for most of the day, it seemed fitting that we should end up in what is – effectively – the Abbeydale Brewery Tap.

This is a large open plan space, with judicious use of seat back dividers to break it up and give a feel of separate spaces. It was getting late, so a couple of nice pales were in order. On drinking a nice sharp pint of Abbeydale’s Deception, I picked up on some of the conversation about Abbeydale doubling up the hoppage on their more sessionable beers….Salford was at the front of my mind at this point….

Then we hit some stronger stuff. Black Mass, there was something barrel aged going on too…things were starting to get hazy….(with a beer fest to launch the next evening this was getting silly…..but….)

A cracking ending.

HUGE thanks to Steve for walking us around. Malcolm and the Wakefield crew, Jim & Laura for the great company and chatter. Twas a joy.

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One comment on “Steel City / Pub City – Sheffield 30/07/2016”

Have to agree with you on the pubs side of thing, J. Manchester City centre has too many soulless ‘modern pubs’ like Port Street (feels a bit like a portacabin, IMHO). Bring on original bar fixtures and fittings!